Having tried all methods for removing key bushings, I have found the quickest and easiest is to use cheesecloth. Pianotek sells it in 5lb lots. Each sheet is approximately 10" wide and 24" long. It is extremely thin and highly porous. Separate one sheet and cut off a 6" x 10" piece. Roll it up so that when flattened it is approx 1/2" wide by 10" long. It should be dense enough now to hold water but the porous nature of the cloth allows the steam to go straight through to the bushing. With the keys clamped together and a towel underneath them, lay the cheesecloth across a row of mortises. Using a hypo-oiler squirt water onto the cheesecloth right over the mortises. Set an iron on top of the cheesecloth for 5-10 seconds. Repeat and test to see if the bushing comes out easily (no wood attached) with a pair of tweezers. Two to three times and the bushings should come out easily. This way steam can be directed over the bushing without saturating the entire key and the process procedes very quickly. The steam has the added benefit of expanding the wood around the balance rail pin taking up any slack that may have developed. And, avoiding the use of wallpaper remover prevents the possibility of it leaching down and compromising the glue joint between the key buttons and the key. David Love >From: Douglasmahard@AOL.COM >Reply-To: pianotech@ptg.org >To: pianotech@ptg.org >Subject: Removing key bushings - an observation >Date: Thu, 26 Oct 2000 18:15:44 EDT > >Hi all, > >Upon removing a set of key bushings yesterday I stumbled onto a technique >that made the bushings let go much faster. My usual technique is to soak >the >bushings with a H2O/Wallpaper remover mix and then us a caul in a soldering >iron to steam them out. This method in itself works pretty good and that's >is what I was doing. However, my caul was loading up with old felt >fragments >and I had to take time to scrape the caul clean every 4th key or so. I >thought if I stuck the caul in a jar of water perhaps the sticky old felt >will come off by itself or scrape off easier. Well, it scraped off easier >but I also noticed that the bushings were coming out a lot faster too. >Every >other key I was dipping the caul in cold water and the bushings released >immediately upon insertion into the mortise. I had a reostat hooked to the >soldering iron set on a little more then half way. > >It will be interesting to try this on the next bushing job to see if it >happens again. > >Doug Mahard > _________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com. Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com.
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